BRUCKNER
MASS NO.3
Singapore Symphony Choruses
Esplanade
Concert Hall
Saturday (15 October 2016 )
This review was published in The Straits Times on 17 October 2016 with the title "Sublime farewell".
Thirty-two years is a lifetime when one
considers the services to choral music by the outgoing Choral Director of the
Singapore Symphony Orchestra Lim Yau. A successor has been named but his
legacy, comprising two terms of 16 years each, is a massive one to live up to.
His first term from 1981 to 1997, as Chorus Master of the Singapore Symphony
Chorus (SSC), focused on building core concert repertoire with works like
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Handel's Messiah, Orff's Carmina Burana and Mendelssohn's Elijah.
The years 2000 to the present saw SSC
augmented by college and community choirs to form a mega-chorus. This enabled
monumental works like Mahler's Symphony
Of A Thousand, Walton's Belshazzar's
Feast, Britten's War Requiem and
MacMillan's Seven Last Words to
receive Singapore
Lim's final concert was typical of his
innovative programming, juxtaposing two contrasted but spiritually connected
works, both receiving first-ever performances here. The still-living Estonian
Arvo Part's Te Deum revealed a
variety of choral intimacy that was close to his heart. Despite the posture of
praise, it is more subdued than exultant, building upon unison chants and
gentle triads which ring gently on the ear.
This stock-in-trade tintinnabuli was
ever-present, but impressive was the evenness of unison singing from the three
choirs, including a semi-chorus on centrestage. The minutest of pianissimos was
no easy task of control, but Lim's charges were all ears and one in voice. The
orchestra's string textures were sparse but well-marshalled, serving more as
interludes than outright accompaniment.
Shane Thio's minimalist piano
contribution and Lu Heng's manning of electronic tape and ison (a Byzantine
drone) added to the mystique, which coursed through its seemingly timeless
half-hour duration. A solo soprano voice was a balm in the closing pages, with
the semi-chorus' reassuring Sanctus as a quiet invocation of parting.
With woodwinds, brass and percussion
joining in for Bruckner's Third Mass
in F minor, one's penchant for sound and bluster would soon be sated. However
this is a far more nuanced work than one might expect from the provincial
Austrian who played the organ and idolised Wagner. Again it were the quieter
sections which impressed, beginning with the serious demeanour of worship that
opened the Kyrie Eleison.
Ecstatic joy in the Gloria and Credo were
soon to come, and the sheer volume built up for the shattering climaxes were a
pleasure to behold. And there was still the luxury of four imported soloists,
soprano Alexandra Steiner, mezzo-soprano Celeste Haworth, tenor Jussi Myllys
and bass Alexander Vassiliev, who had short but important parts in key verses.
Ultimately it was conductor Lim's choruses which stole his final show.
From the absolutely beautiful Benedictus to the final Agnus Dei, here was a sublime close with
Rachel Walker's brief oboe solo and a serene walk into the sunset. How apt it
was for Lim's inspired musicianship and leadership to do the talking. If one
pondered how this professed non-Christian could be so sympathetic in Christian
music, the answer would be this: Music is his true religion and creed.
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| Behold The Man. |
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